iv PREFACE, 



words which lie did not understand, a process not only 

 negatively barren and wasteful, but positively evil, as it en- 

 gendered the habit of regarding words as disassociated from 

 ideas. Again, he was required to attempt to read that 

 which was quite beyond his mental grasp, or which was so 

 foreign to his experience that, understanding being hope- 

 less, lie ceased to try to understand, each successive lesson 

 more widely separating language and thought. The diet 

 of husks, unfortunately, was not confined to the prodigal 

 who had wasted his substance in riotous living. 



Under the later system, the truth is recognized that the 

 object of all school exercises is to promote mental growth, 

 to which end ideas and thoughts are indispensable. Words, 

 like bank-notes, are regarded, not for their intrinsic, but 

 for their representative value. In so far as they clearly re- 

 veal the gold of thought, the}' may be taken for genuine coin, 

 but, failing in this, they are worthless counterfeits. The 

 kinds of ideas and thoughts are also a matter of serious 

 moment. In each stage of the mind's growth those only 

 should be used that will command the attention by the in- 

 terest excited, that will stimulate the reflective activities of 

 the mind, and that will incite to further observation and 

 investigation. 



With these objects kept clearly in view, reading, and the 

 general acquisition of language, become secondary, and not 

 primary processes. They are incident to the general objects 

 of instruction. Reading matter is selected upon the same 

 principles as studies — that which will interest, stimulate, 

 and incite. At every stage of growth it is such as will best 

 serve the present purposes of the mind, and, at the same 

 time, promote the next step in advance. The pupil reads 

 because he is anxious to know. His progress is rapid be- 

 cause he is interested. His manner of reading is correct, 

 because he understands the thought, and thought controls 

 the expression. 



